Andy the singing Jedi

If you liked such genre-melding movies such as Cowboys and Aliens, you'll love Andy the Singing Jedi. Critics are raving that Andy the Singing Jedi is "the strangest mix of ideas never to come out of Hollywood.

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Misunderstood

What was said: That's a Pez dispenser.

What Sam heard: That's a Pez de Spencer.

How Sam replied: No it's not. That's a Pez de Sam.

Mission to Honduras

I will be the first person to admit that there have been times during my association with the Army that have been supremely frustrating. Health care is not the primary mission of the military, and sometimes the differing expectations clash with what I expect as a physician. That being said, there are times when I feel fortunate for the opportunities that the Army provides.

A view of part of Hospital Escuela, the indigent hospital in Tegucigalpa, Honduras

For the past two weeks, I have been part of a medical mission to Honduras. Our team of 14 people (all active-duty military) includes everyone you would need to run two operating rooms—nurses, techs, orthopedic surgeons and residents and, of course, an anesthesiologist and some anesthesiology residents. During our time here we were able to provide care for 35 people, many of whom would never have been able to afford the surgical hardware we were able to donate. Patients at Hospital Escuela don't have to pay their doctors, but they do have to buy their own implants for surgical procedures. That can be a difficult task considering the amount of poverty here.

Waiting in the hospital with one of my residents, Mike Patzkowski, for another case to finish

Part of the challenge of providing anesthesia in Honduras is the fact that we can't bring all of our equipment with us. We can borrow some things from the Hondurans, but we try to be as self-sufficient as possible. To make this possible, we go about providing anesthesia a little differently than we would at home. Instead of using general anesthesia and keeping patients asleep with inhaled anesthetics, we relied on regional sedation using nerve blocks and then provided intravenous sedation. Of all our 35 cases, not a single patient received a general anesthetic or required ventilator support. That's a big deal for us because there isn't much monitoring in the recovery area. If the patient has been breathing continuously on his own, we know it is safe to leave him in the recovery area and hurry back to our next case. If the patient just barely came off a ventilator, he needs to be watched closely, at least for a little while.

One of the residents places a nerve block under ultrasound guidance

And nerve blocks like those allowed our orthopedic surgeons to place hardware like this on our patients

In addition to all of the operative cases, we also had the opportunity to interact with the Honduran attending physicians and their residents. I was impressed with how hard they work and what they do without.

Resident Mike Dimeola describes the popliteal nerve block to Juan and Alejandra, Honduran anesthesiology residents, while Mike Patzkowski acts as the ultrasound guinea pig

I'm glad that I've been able to put my medical knowledge to good use for some people who really needed the help. I hope that I can continue to find ways to participate in this kind of medical mission, whether military or civilian. I know I will be going home with a renewed appreciation for all of the amenities and comforts we have at home.

Might want to think again

Spencer: I don't like Scottish people.

Dad: That's ironic considering your last name.

Spencer: You mean Scott comes from Scotland?




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Small engine repair

This would be the intake manifold—or what's left of it

The last time I used our lawnmower, it unexpectedly shut off, but since I had just finished mowing the lawn, I didn't think much of it. When I tried to start it up this week and it wouldn't work, then I started putting some thought into things. It appeared that the engine wasn't getting fuel. The fuel line was looking pretty bad, so I replaced that. That didn't fix the problem so I pulled off the carburetor. No problems there, either. I started pulling off even more parts. it didn't take long before I found my problem—a broken intake manifold (pictured above).

As I was digging around on this engine, I had a flashback to a childhood memory. My father taught a small engine repair class at South Bonneville Junior High. This was back when North and South Bonneville were sharing a school so I wasn't any older than Mason. Anyway, the kids in Dad's class were pretty good about tearing these engines apart, but not so good at putting them back together. At the end of the school year, Dad would have boxes of engine parts, and he conscripted me and sometimes my younger brother to help put them back together. I guess that exercise ended up being rather useful after all.

Grandma gets busted

Grandma Sandy looks way too happy about her incarceration

Wouldn't you know it—we try to take Grandma Sandy out for a good time and she goes and gets in trouble with the law. We just can't take her anywhere she's such a reprobate. So we're out in the Texas hill country when Grandma gets picked up by the sheriff on an outstanding warrant and thrown into the paddy wagon. In Grandma's behalf, I will say that the warrant was for snoring and that the sheriff has no jurisdiction outside of Enchanted Springs Ranch. Still, I don't know how the children will live down the fact that their grandmother is a jailbird.

Bullseye

Today is the last day of Cub Scout day camp. Today I got to line up next to Mason at the archery range for a little friendly competition. The photo is the target of the winner. Want to guess who it belongs to? (Hint: it wasn't mine.) Yes, Mason officially gave me a beat-down.

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Don't shoot your eye out

This is Mason. This is Mason with a gun. It's a bb gun. And that's still a somewhat scary proposition.





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Fun with owl poop

This week is Cub Scout day camp where boys can be boys and do exciting things like deconstructing owl pellets. Ah, the wonders of nature.



-- Post From My iPhone

Location:Holbrook Rd,San Antonio,United States

For sale

Considering how rough the housing market has been lately and considering the high likelihood that we will be moving somewhere else next summer, we decided to put our house on the market. We spent the day yesterday shooting photos to improve our realtor.com posting. As I was searching through our photo library today, I also found some photos of the house when we initially decided to purchase it. So here are some before and after photos to see how things have changed in five years.

The front yard before

And the front yard after

The loft before

And the loft after

The living room before

And the living room after

As you can see, I think we have made some significant improvements. Now we just need to find someone who wants to buy the house. So if anyone knows someone who is looking to buy in the San Antonio area, we'd be happy to hear from you.

End of the (school) year

Mason receives his end-of-the-year awards from his principal

This week marked the end of another school year. Mason and Spencer both had awards ceremonies. Spencer was deemed the "best scientist." Mason garnered a long list of awards including being commended on two sections of the TAKS tests and making the all-A honor role. At the end of the ceremony the top 10 Accelerated Reader scores for the grade were honored. Mason had the top score for the grade—by far. We are certainly proud of his accomplishments at school. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Spencer's accomplishments as well, seeing as he has been doing reading and math with the first graders for much of the year. OK, so I'm bragging a little—I can't help being proud of their success at school.

Fun with fish

My sister Andrea and her family are not the only ones who have been fishing lately. I have been out camping (though not in a fancy cabin) and fishing, too. The first weekend, Mason and I went out, he caught six fish. Mason had reeled in three fish before I had time to set up my own pole.

Mason was pretty pleased with his fishing success

Spencer and I went out the next week. He was determined to catch as many fish as Mason did, but we got skunked in the morning—possibly because the worms I brought were all dead. The campground host saw us out walking later that morning and suggested we come to the fishing competition at 9 am. I figured Spencer was bored of fruitless fishing, but when he heard there were door prizes, he was ready to try it again. Fortunately, the organizers of the event were able to provide some life bait.

It may just be a baby bluegill, but just one fish makes for a much more successful fishing trip

I had a great time going out individually with the boys and can't wait to do it again soon.

Oh, and I managed to catch a few fish of my own, too

Dr. Coconut

Sam has decided to call himself Dr. Coconut

For the past several weeks, Sam has taken to calling everyone "coconuts." Then he turned things around and started calling himself "Dr. Coconut." It was so endearing that Teressa had to get Sam a real coconut. From the time it came home, Sam started asking to open it up. So I drilled a hole, threw in a straw and Sam went to town. It seems to have become a habit. This week when we were grocery shopping, Sam noticed the coconuts on display and wanted another one. It seems that Dr. Coconut is nuts for coconuts.

Say it ain't so, Diego

Sam has become a big fan of Go, Diego, Go (among other TV shows). But after we had this conversation, I'm starting to wonder about the educational content. I'm guessing condors probably like to eat more than rocks. Before I started filming, Sam was quite adamant that condors do not like flying. I'm sure that's a common misconception.

From the vault

I know there are many of you out there who have seen this, but I have been going through my collection of home videos and figured this would be worth posting. If there is one thing you can take away from this video, it's an understanding of just how bored I was while I was sitting around in Iraq. And yes, my sense of humor is a little odd. I'm glad you noticed.

Over the airwaves

Antennas have certainly gotten more attractive since the last one we bought

It is time for another installment of how can Ethan use alternate technology (in this case much older technology) to avoid paying out to the cable company. This episode was inspired by the news that the BYU vs San Diego State basketball game would be airing on CBS. Since that is a network that actually broadcasts its content, I went out Saturday morning and purchased a new antenna. They do some nice things with antennas these days. In fact, I wouldn't even recognize the thing as an antenna if it didn't say so on the box. Where are the rabbit ears?

Right after soccer games, we came home and I hooked the antenna up. We caught the whole second half of the ballgame. Go BYU! The picture was fantastic. There were some times when the signal would break up momentarily, but overall things were much better than they used to be on our analog sets. Hopefully, I will be able to watch plenty of NCAA tournament games the same way.

Winter weather

This morning we were greeted with the sight of a cold, white, crystalline substance that is reportedly called "snow"

After seeing so many photos of blizzards and snowstorms this winter, we've been feeling left out. Fortunately Mother Nature finally decided to grace us with some winter weather. As you can see from the photo above, for the first time since we moved to San Antonio, we actually received some snowfall. Granted, the amount of snow can't be considered impressive when it doesn't even cover the grass, but it's a big deal for our area. As you can see, the weather was cold enough that the snow stuck to the sidewalks and roads. And before the snow started falling last night, we also had a light coating of freezing rain, so underneath that layer of snow is a layer of ice. And when south central Texas has to deal with ice, this is what happens:


Traffic is snarled during the attempted morning commute. The freeway was closed from this point on

I knew that getting to work this morning would be interesting. I nearly turned around and went home after seeing five cars that had been abandoned on the side of the road in the mile between our house and the freeway. But I forged ahead because I grew up in Idaho, and we don't let a little ice get in the way. What I didn't foresee was every freeway running through San Antonio being closed. I made it partway into work before I had to give up, turn around and come back home. The kids also got a day off from school. I can safely say that this is the first time I have gotten a snow day for an accumulation of about half-an-inch of snow.

Eat Mason's dust

Mason displays his winning Pinewood Derby car and his first-place certificate

Today was Mason's last Pinewood Derby. Since we missed last year's Pinewood Derby, we decided to go all out. OK, I decided to go all out. I may have been a tad obsessive with my wheel and axle preparation. Mason, of course, did the design. It looks remarkably similar to the design of the last car—close enough that Teressa kept asking if there wasn't something else that Mason wanted to do to make it different. There wasn't. He wasn't interested in any elaborate decorations, either. All he wanted was the spoiler in back and the lightning bolts on the sides. Perhaps I spent more time that I should have on my part than I should have. Between the seven-step buffing process for the axles and the time I spent on applying graphite, I spent many hours on the project. After all the work, Mason was feeling pretty confident. I made sure to warn him that other families had done a lot of work on their cars, too.

Maybe they didn't do quite as much work as we did, though, because Mason took home the top prize. He won every heat he participated in and had the record time for the track. I think Mason was pretty excited about the results. (I have some video of Mason's reaction to the final race as proof. I may have to post it later after I load it on the computer.)

The Wright Brothers

The boys pose with the airplane model that Grandpa made for them

This Halloween, the older boys decided they wanted to dress up as the Wright brothers. Sam wanted to be a dog. That worked out well because the Wright brothers had a dog named Cisco. When Grandpa and Grandma Scott came to visit right before Halloween, Grandpa built a replica of the Wright brothers' plane. He built it out of a discarded grocery cart. It was a rather sizable replica so fortunately, it could be dismantled. Otherwise, Teressa might not have had room to park the van in the garage.


Emotions during the photo shoot ran the gamut

Since I happened to be stuck in Iraq during the Halloween season, I didn't have the opportunity to photograph the boys in their costumes. So we pulled everything back out this week and finally got those photographs. I had forgotten just how challenging trying to photograph three boys can be. We finally got some good photos, but it took a while.